Archive for December, 2007

Well we have decided to start some traditions of our own as well as some we already have done. This year on Christmas Eve instead of staying up super late wrapping some presents we decided it would be a good idea to do it during the day. Todd took the kids sledding while I stayed home and wrapped and looked for all the excellent hiding places I used. Man what was I thinking. I am sure it will be a couple months and I will still be finding little things:) Oh well. This seemed to work really well.

Here are the kids after sledding. Calvin and Ollie were napping. They came home ready for hot cocoa. Todd called on his way to make sure the cocoa would be ready. (or to make sure I had things put away:) After that we decided to exchange our gifts. The kids picked names we just had the 3 older ones this year because we knew Ollie wouldn’ t mind.

Here is Calvie hugging Monty after Monty gave him his gift. Monty got him a couple super hero guys and a lovely Shrek baby?! We have never even seen the Shrek movies but Monty knew Calvin would love it:) It was a very fun day. Soon to come pics of our Christmas and New Year!

Well today was our Christmas program at church, which I absolutely love. We knew last night that we were suppose to get lots of snow and blizzard type conditions but were hoping it would be fine. Todd got up bright and early to shovel. After trying to decide if we were going or not because of safety especially with our kiddos we decided we could get there and had talked to friends that said if we were unable to get back we could stay at their house that wasn’t up on a hill like ours. We got everyone ready and even packed extra clothes and shovels for our trip:) We got out onto the road and then we were stuck! We couldn’t go anywhere. The wheels kept spinning. Todd had to get out and shovel while I drove it took us quite a while just to get back in our driveway. It was crazy!

Here we are in the car ready to go with shovel in tow.

Here’s Todd outside of the van shoveling while I was driving.

Here we are back safe and sound in our driveway!

Here’s the spot we were stuck. Pretty pathetic huh? This is right outside of our driveway!

Well once we got settled in we decided to hold a little testimony meeting and read some scriptures. We had a very nice testimony meeting and then got to Ella who wanted to bear her testimony. We all talked about how grateful we are to have the gospel in our lives and how we love our family and how blessed we are. Ella bore her testimony on princesses and how Belle had a nice flower and a big beast! What a way to end our meeting:).

We had a little Christmas party with a group of friends. All of the kids brought a book and we exchanged them. We had great food and lots of fun. We got some really great books. Ella got some princess books which were a huge hit. Calvin got a curious george book which is so great and suitable for my little monkey and Ollie got an awesome christmas book with cd.

Here’s little Miss Bella soooo cute!

Here’s Tristan with Ollie!

Monty has off of school now until after New Years. We decided to do some fun stuff while he is on break. We are excited to get together with family and friends. Yesterday we went to go see Alvin and the chipmunks. It was very good the kids really liked it. We also visited santa and of course Monty told him a completely different toy than what he wanted a couple of weeks ago. Should be interesting. :) I just love this time of year. We have some great traditions that I look forward to every year. When I was young we always had pizza on Christmas eve so we have been doing that in our house now too we also exchange names with the kids and get to open them on Christmas eve. We went shopping yesterday for those gifts. What a nightmare!!! Imagine 4 kids 5 years old and younger in the toy section at a super packed walmart. We also had to hide them from each other so Todd and I had to keep switching kids. Monty got Calvins name, Ella got Monty and Calvin got Ella. We excluded Oliver this year. After a good 1 1/2 hours in walmart we were ready to leave with 3 crying kids. Ella was upset because she wanted to see what she got from Calvin. Calvin was upset because he wanted Elmo and Ollie was upset because he had had enough! Oh the fun!

I cannot believe how fast time is going. On Monday Oliver was 2 months! I cannot believe he has been here 2 months already, yet I can’t remember life without him. Isn’t it crazy. He is at such a fun stage where he smiles and is even starting to laugh. He cracks me up. He loves to sit in his bouncy chair and watch whatever is going on. He is so fun!

What an exciting night we had! We got a phone call saying my parents and brother who just got home from Iraq would be coming to visit us. I help out in Monty’s school on Mondays so when I got there I told him and he could barely contain himself. He made a ton of pics to give to his Uncle Zach (oops Zach I forgot to give them to you). Not only did they come to visit they had dinner with us and family home evening. The kids were so excited. Oh and Mom and Dad got a new dog Sam so he came too

Introducing Sam! Good thing he’s easy going!

Here’s Uncle Zach with the kids. They had so much fun with him. He chases them and plays with them non stop they just love it. Ok ignore the extremely dirty tv I made sure to clean it. I couldn’t believe all those handprints!!! Again Uncle Zach we are so happy you came to visit. We are so happy to spend xmas with you. We love you!

Well we went to Aunt Kari’s house this past weekend to celebrate Christmas with Todd’s side of the family. It was a ton of fun. Papa surprised us and came down the stairs in a santa shirt and a santa hat. It was great! Ella ran up to him and said, “I would like a baby alive”. It was so cute. The kids just loved him and were so excited to see that Papa was “santa’s helper”.

Oh so much better! Calvie likes this helper:)

Here are the kiddos in front of Aunty Kari’s gigantic tree!! I still am not sure how they got that thing put up and all decorated. The kids helped Nana put bows on all the presents. They were so anxious to open the presents. Before we got to Aunty Kari’s we talked to the kids about being polite etc. We asked them what they would do if they opened a present they didn’t really like Monty right away said, “I would say, No thank you I don’t really like this”. Ella said she would say, “Oh me like this so much”. Those little turkeys.

Here’s Ella totally posing. As you can tell she loves her new fairy outfit from Aunt Kari. Ella also got her beloved baby alive from Nana and Papa and boy do I wish I had a picture of that but I couldn’t stop watching her to grab the camera. She was shaking so hard when she opened it because she was so excited. It was so great. She then said, “Now Santa doesn’t need to bring me a baby alive” Monty on the other hand thinks he needs one too. First off what is better than the real thing?? I try to tell them they can change Ollie’s diapers if they want but I don’t have any takers yet. So this baby alive goes through real diapers what the heck?? Now I don’t need to buy diapers for 2 kids 3 instead!!! We are going to teach baby alive to go on the toilet:)

Well we had a fun filled time celebrating with the Gasall’s. Thank you soooo much!!

Ok so first off Ollie is a wonderful sleeper I have been super blessed with all my kids sleeping through the night at a very young age, well here goes what happened last night and who knows when else:). So earlier in the week Oliver woke up at 4:30ish and I ran in his room to get him. First I always try to remember to turn off the monitor so it doesn’t wake Todd up. I got him and I thought to myself boy he fell asleep already but my luck I will just go back to bed and in 10 more minutes he will start crying again so I took him to the living room to feed him and he would barely wake up but I made sure to get him fed because I wanted/needed to get some sleep. I became a little worried thinking this will be a new thing and what was I going to do because any of those who know me know I NEED sleep. So last night it was 3:00 ish and I hear crying on the monitor I roll over and look at the time and want to cry, but jump up to go get Ollie in my scramble I forgot to turn off the monitor. I go into Ollie’s room and I grab him as I am walking out I hear “him” crying oh wait he’s not crying he is totally sleeping in my arms. What the heck? I am totally frazzled and think I am losing my mind. I walk into our bedroom and hear the crying coming from the monitor but am looking at him and he is totally sleeping. Finally after waking up a little more I realize it is our next door neighbors new baby! I hear her voice talking to her newborn. Ok my first thought was I wonder how many times I have done this or wait worse yet does she hear me on her monitor? I keep that monitor on all day HOW EMBARRASSING! Isn’t that crazy? Next I wake up Todd and say do you hear that crying he jumps up saying, “Charity, I will go get him I am sorry I didn’t hear him.” I laugh and tell him I was just teasing him because its the neighbors baby. I am not sure he will remember any of this when he gets up but I thought it was pretty crazy. So now my question to you what do I do with my monitor???